Looking to stiffen up the bushings for the curved front lower control arm on a 2g

[bvass]

I have replaced every bushing on my suspension with a polyurethane one except for the one in the curved lower control arm. As far as I can tell no one sells it. I do not want to go with spherical bearings, so what options do I have left? Would adding window caulk (urethane) on top of a brand new bushing help? What else can I do?

 

[greengoblin]

About all you can do is use something to fill the voids. The bushing need to be able to flex so the arm can rotate still.

Kevin

 

[williillii]

Yep people dont sell that bushing for a reason. I did what you were saying, got some 3m windo-weld and covered it...but I did it only to preserve the bushing. I didn't notice any difference in stiffness. There is not enough of that metal piece that goes through the bushing sticking out to be affected significantly by putting urethane on it..

What problem are you trying to solve here?

 

[bvass]

That bushing failed after one year of use so I am looking for something more durable.

 

[ACM]

What are you doing with your car that caused the bushing to fail in one year ?

I ask this because at least one person ran his 98 Talon (very quickly) around road courses for many years without problems, at least two cars spent many years pulling over 1G laterally on stock bushings in top level autocross without them failing.

That said, I do run custom poly bushings in my car, as my rules do not allow spherical bearings. I can tell you that you have to be very careful selecting the poly hardness, too soft and you don't accomplish anything, too stiff and you'll be replacing steering racks and ps pumps far too regularly to enjoy it. I need to go dig through my notes, but I can tell you what I ended up with.

The bushings are pretty easy to make, so long as you don't use the opportunity to change your caster settings, then it gets ugly and _really_ expensive, very quickly

 

[bvass]

I am autocrossing regularly and road race from time to time. I think the bushings might have failed because I have pretty stiff suspension set up (700F/400R springs) and poly bushings everywhere else which puts a lot more stress on the 2 rubber bushings that are left. I would appreciated it if you go trough your notes and give me some pointers on how to make my own bushings.

 

[williillii]

Ah ok. Good luck finding something...

(you're sure you weren't leaking anything onto the bushing?)